Listen to This Week in Ontario Edublogs on voicEd Radio

Follow me on Twitter

Day: July 3, 2011

So, yesterday, I blew off a bit about having “the conversation”. It garnered some private thoughts which I wish had been public replies to the posting but that’s OK.

When you think about it, there have been people trying to steer the ship with the effective use of computer technology. I emphasize the word “effective” here. There are certainly ways of using technology that are of so little value that it’s a crime to steal educational time for their use. Some use could be best described as arcade-like. Some other use could be described as simply replacing pen and pencil activities with computerized ones. There’s very little purpose to them.

As Gary Stager is fond of saying, we have the ability to stand on the shoulders of giants in this field if we choose to do so. There are visionaries that have carved the way and shown us how the technology can truly be transformative. We shouldn’t ignore this sage advice but, rather, should hang on the wisdom to truly make the classroom experience worthwhile.

When you have “that conversation”, there is a wonderful source of information and inspiration. The “Daily Papert” provides a daily source of quotes to inspire and make you think about what really can be done with computer technology specifically to education. Visit the website and subscribe to the feed. You’ll get a very short message daily that definitely will make you think and will serve you well when you have “that conversation”.

If you’re a user of technology in the classroom, it may be one of the better things that you do for yourself.

Many teachers we’ve spoken to have tried film making projects. They’ve had varying degrees of success and the problems they encounter are nearly always the same: getting started; structure; sound; relevance to learning; time consumption.